[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The condition or quality of being suspicious.
1. Liability to suspicion; questionable character.
1486. Year-bk. 2 Henry VII. (1567), 3 b. Le felony ou le suspiciousnes.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1717), V. 347. The Reasons, why this inward Voice of the Spirit cannot be the Rule, which Men are to be guided by…. Because of its Suspiciousness.
1881. Westcott & Hort, Grk. N. T., II. 67. Its final conclusions must rest on the intrinsic verisimilitude or suspiciousness of the text itself.
2. Proneness to suspicion; disposition to suspect; mistrustfulness. (In quot. 1525, Suspicion.)
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. xxii. 51. They … went in and out on their maisters busynesse, without any suspeciousness of them.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 66. Our lorde … preserue all those that entendeth this holy iourney … from suspycyousnes and wronge iudgementes.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, V. xii. (1647), 251. Suspiciousnesse is as great an enemy to wisdome, as too much credulitie.
a. 1768. Secker, Serm., Ephes. v. 11 (1770), II. 351. An immoderate Suspiciousness of innocent Compliances.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., IV. xviii. 34. The nation settled back into its old suspiciousness, which it disguised under the name of independence.
1884. R. W. Church, Bacon, ii. 56. Bacon … using every effort and device to appease the Queen’s anger and suspiciousness.
